Paul was a giant of righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God because he always was pressing toward the mark of the upward calling of God—the calling to the first resurrection.

That these attitudes and actions are works can be seen in the following verses:

Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brothers, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (Philippians 3:16,17)

The "righteousness which is of God by faith" includes a walk, a pursuit of Christ.

It has been supposed that Paul, when contrasting faith and works, was comparing belief in Christ with the living of a righteous life. Such is not the case.

Rather Paul was comparing the attempt to gain righteousness by our self-directed works—particularly, in Paul's case, the works of the Law of Moses, with the single-minded pursuit of Christ.

There is an enormous chasm between interpreting Paul's teaching to mean we should pursue Christ rather than our own program of good deeds, and interpreting his doctrine to mean God is saving us on the basis of Christ's righteousness and we are quite free to live our life as we see fit while we are waiting to go to Heaven.

The only true Christian life is the life of single-minded consecration. The present level of Christian experience is far below the standard of the Scriptures.

The four destructive doctrines we mentioned previously, the concept of Divine grace as an overlooking of the sins of the believers whether or not they are serving the Lord; the overemphasis on the love and mercy of God while the consuming fire of His wrath is minimized; the rewards-only Judgment Seat of Christ; and the evacuation of all who term themselves Christian so they cannot be harmed by Antichrist or the great tribulation; all reflect the influence of humanism on Christian thinking. The common denominator seems to be the defining of Paul's use of the term "faith" to mean assent to correct theology concerning Christ, and his use of the term "works" to mean godly behavior.

Paul never said or implied it does not really matter how the saints behave, that they will not be rewarded according to their behavior. Our conscience, Paul's exhortations and personal behavior, and the entire Scriptures, tells us this cannot be true.

Paul taught we must give our life to gain the knowledge of God. Now that Christ, God's Son, has been sent down from Heaven and has died on the cross for our sins, and has been raised for our justification, we are not to develop our own program of good deeds and attempt to please God by performing them.

We are to abandon our schemes for attaining God's approval and turn our attention to the single-minded, intense, fervent, desperately earnest seeking of union with our Lord Jesus. This is what it means to be saved by faith rather than by works.

When we are pursuing Christ with zeal, in all fervency of spirit, we are regarded as righteous in the sight of God. Christ is covering us with His atoning blood.

To be continued.